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The Depiction of the Leader in North Korean Thematic Paintings

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The Depiction of the Leader in North Korean Thematic Paintings Visualizing Greatness: The Depiction of the Leader in North Korean Thematic Paintings MA thesis Asian Studies (120 EC): Korean Studies Leiden University Rachel (A.C.) van den Berg s1276077 15 December 2017 Email: [email protected] Supervisor: Dr. Koen de Ceuster Words: 15.821 Table of Contents 1. Introduction ………………………………………………..………………….…...……..…1 2. Theoretical Framework …..…………………………………………………………………3 2.1 Personality Cult ……………………………………………………………………3 2.1.1 Charismatic Leadership …………………………………………………..5 2.1.2 Political Religion …………………………………………………...........6 2.2 Propaganda…………………………………………………………………………7 3. Methodology ………………………………………………………………………………..8 4. The Personality Cults of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il …………………………………...11 4.1 The Personality Cult of Kim Il Sung ……………………………………………..11 4.2 The Personality Cult of Kim Jong Il ……………………………………………..15 5. North Korean Art Theory ………………………………………………………………….19 5.1 The Theory of Juche Realism …………………………………………………….19 5.2 The Characteristics of Juche Realism ....…………………………………………21 5.3 Thematic Painting ………………………………………………………………..23 6. Visual Analysis ……………………………………………………………………………26 6.1 The Depiction of Kim Il Sung …………………………………………………....26 6.2 The Depiction of the Two Leaders Together …………………………………….32 6.3 The Depiction of Kim Jong Il ……………………………………………………35 7. Conclusion ………………………………………………………………………………...40 Bibliography ………………………………………………………………………………….42 1. Introduction North Korea1 has been a point of attention to the international community for many years now. Ever since the country developed into a socialist state under the leadership of Kim Il Sung after the end of the Japanese occupation of the Korean peninsula, many academics have attempted to analyze the inner workings of the state and the personality cult which developed around its leader Kim Il Sung. Although the workings of the personality cult have been examined from a historical, psychological, sociological and ethnological perspective, research about the personality cult on the basis of the visual arts produced in the country itself are scarce. The North Korean government produces copious amounts of propaganda art every year, most of which is centered around the depiction of the image of the leader. The visual arts are one of the most used platforms for the dissemination of North Korean propaganda, and could therefore give much insight into the personality cults of the North Korean leaders. In this thesis, I will be conducting a comparative analysis of the depiction of Kim Il Sung and the depiction of Kim Jong Il in North Korean thematic paintings (chujehwa). In doing so, I want to determine how these paintings reflect the personality cults of the two Leaders, and whether there are any differences and similarities in the way the two leaders are depicted. I will be analyzing paintings of Kim Il Sung, paintings of Kim Jong Il, and paintings of the two leaders together. Since an analysis of the depiction of the personality cults of the leaders in North Korean visual arts in general would be too broad a subject for a MA thesis, I have decided to focus on thematic paintings, which comprise an essential genre of painting within North Korean art theory.2 While it would be interesting to examine the manner in which the North Korean leaders are illustrated in various other forms of visual art, other genres of visual art will be excluded from the analysis conducted in this thesis. This research is relevant because (to my knowledge) there is no such analysis of North Korean propaganda paintings which depict Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il yet. In my thesis, I will carry out thorough research of the personality cults of both leaders, as well as North Korean art theory. For my theoretical framework, I will present various theories about the definition of the terms ‘personality cult’ and ‘propaganda’. Furthermore, I will conduct a visual analysis of North Korean thematic paintings by utilizing a methodology of semiotics and iconography. Therefore, my research question is: “How are the personality cults of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il reflected in North Korean thematic paintings (주제화)?” 1 The term ‘North Korea’ and the official denomination ‘DPRK’ will be used interchangeably in this thesis. 2 Harry Tupan and Koen de Ceuster, De Kim Utopie: Schilderijen Uit Noord-Korea. (Zwolle: WBOOKS, 2015), 9. 1 I will be discussing my findings in three chapters. In the first chapter, I will examine the personality cults of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il by analyzing the biographies of the leaders, the characteristics of their personality cults, and the similarities and differences in the personality cults of the two leaders. In the second chapter, I will be discussing North Korean art theory on the basis of the essay ‘On Fine Art’ (misullon), which was published by the North Korean government in 1991 and supposedly written by Kim Jong Il. In the last chapter, I will conduct a visual analysis of the depiction of Kim Il Sung and the depiction of Kim Jong Il in North Korean thematic paintings on the basis of the information discussed in the previous chapters. 2 2. Theoretical framework In order to conduct an analysis of the depiction of the personality cults of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il in North Korean propaganda paintings, first one has to gain an insight into the definition of the terms ‘personality cult’ and ‘propaganda’ and the related concepts. For my theoretical framework, I will therefore provide an overview of different theories on the phenomenon of the personality cult and its definition. Since many academics include the concepts of charismatic leadership and political religion in their analysis of personality cults, I will briefly examine these two concepts as well. Furthermore, this theoretical framework will provide a definition of the term ‘propaganda’ and its supposed purpose. 2.1 Personality Cult Despite extensive research on the phenomenon of the ‘personality cult’ across a variety of academic disciplines, academics have not been able to produce a definition of the term ‘personality cult’ on which all scholars have been able to agree. The term ‘cult of personality’ was first used in a political context by Karl Marx in a letter to Wilhelm Blos in 1877, in which he condemned the cult of personality forming around Ferdinand Lasalle, Marx’s rival inside the Communist League. 3 However, the concept of personality cults surrounding political leaders can be found in a variety of times and places throughout history. The first known case of a divine cult of a living human being is the cult which surrounded the Spartan general Lysander, dating back to the 5th century BC. Personality cults further occurred around Pharaohs in Egypt, Alexander the Great, Roman emperors, Japanese emperors, Napoleon, Russian tsars, as well as in several other imperial systems, socialist regimes and totalitarian governments.4 In his thesis The ABC of Sycophancy, Adrian Teodor Popan defines the personality cult of state leaders as “quantitatively exaggerated and qualitatively extravagant public demonstration of praise of the leader,” and names overwhelming praise to the leader as the central element of a personality cult.5 He further argues that a personality cult is not created by the dictator himself but by individual members of the pseudo elite, and that it can only be 3 Adrian Teodor Popan, “The ABC of Sycophancy: Structural Conditions for the Emergence of Dictator’s Cults of Personality” (PhD diss., University of Texas, 2015), http://hdl.handle.net/2152/46763, 14-15. 4 Anita Pisch, “The Personality Cult of Stalin in Soviet Posters, 1929 – 1953: Archetypes, Inventions and Fabrications” (PhD diss., Australian National University, 2014), 90-91. 5 Popan, “The ABC of Sycophancy,” 13. 3 created under certain structural conditions.6 Other academics such as Daniel Nelson, Daniel Chirot, P. Rutland, E.A. Rees and Rossen Vassilev argue the exact opposite, considering the personality cult as an intentional strategy and the exclusive creation of the leader and/or of the ruling elite.7 Similarly, in his article What is character and why it really does matter, Thomas A. Wright describes the phenomenon of the personality cult as “the idealized, even god-like, public image of an individual consciously shaped and molded [emphasis added] through constant propaganda and media exposure,”8 perceiving it as an intentional strategy of the ruling elite. Wright’s definition of the term ‘personality cult’ concurs with that of political scientist Pao-min Chang, who defined the personality cult as “the artificial elevation of the status and authority of one man … through the deliberate creation, projection and propagation of a godlike image.9” The fact that several academics name ‘a god-like image’ as one of the defining features of a personality cult demonstrates the affiliation between the personality cult and the concept of political religion, which will be discussed further at a later point in this chapter. Another important debate within the studies of the personality cult is about specifying the key characteristics of personality cults. According to Jan Pampler, modern day personality cults display five key characteristics: Personality cults are secular and “anchored in popular sovereignty”; they target the entire population; they use mass media, their objects are all males; and they exist where the mass media can be controlled by the government.10 However, Anita Pisch argues in her dissertation that the key characteristics of a personality cult are the elevation and glorification of an individual; a manufactured or heavily managed leader image or persona; the use of mass media; the use of symbolism and rituals; and parallels to religious phenomena.11 While Pampler and Pisch agree on the importance of mass media and the management of the leader image by the government, the other key characteristics they mention differ from each other. Going even further, Popan argues that there are only two key characteristics of the personality cult that have been identified by all scholars who have studied the phenomenon: quasi-ubiquitous praise manifested through mass-media and public parades and the coercion of adulation of the leader by the government.12 In Chapter 3, I will 6 Ibid., 1.
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